Penguin’s previously-announced library ebook lending pilot program with 3M and the Brooklyn Public Library, scheduled to last for a year, got off to a late start beginning yesterday, as announced in a 3M press release. That release let slip at the end of the third paragraph that “Penguin content is expected to be available to all 3M Cloud Library customers by the end of the year,” and other press has been off to the races from there. Penguin has not commented on the release and we have all seen in the past that vendors are not the authoritative source of […]
Libraries
ALA and Publishers Talk–Directly to Each Other
The issues between publishers and libraries over the purchase and lending of ebooks are complicated and nuanced, and depending on how one wants to frame the reporting, you could see a session at the AAP’s New York office featuring ALA president Maureen Sullivan on Thursday as conciliatory, inflammatory, or both. Perhaps the best takeaway is that it’s more productive for both sides to communicate with each other directly rather than through posted statements. A number of publishers (and the media) attended the AAP’s presentation and moderated discussion featuring Sullivan, who was joined by a number of other ALA officers and […]
Hachette Further Clarifies Higher eBook Library Pricing
In follow-up correspondence Hachette spokesperson Sophie Cottrell clarified some additional points relating to its change of terms with ebook distributors to libraries and the “internal systems issue” that apparently delayed OverDrive’s ability to implement the new terms. Hachette reports that they did indeed realize several months ago that OverDrive had not ingested their library ONIX feed, adding “we don’t know why the OD system had more difficulties than others and have been working with them to resolve their issues.” The other library vendors Hachette works with “experienced no delay in ingesting new ONIX and reflecting new prices to their customers” […]
Higher Hachette Library eBook Pricing Draws Attention
In an email to customers Thursday afternoon, Overdrive told library customers to expect a substantial increase in prices on the catalog of Hachette Book Group ebooks they make available for library purchase (approximately 3,500 titles released prior to April 2010) by what they said is an average of about 220 percent. (A separate post from the distributor cites sample increases for individual titles ranging from 50 percent to 150 percent.) Overdrive said libraries could purchase ebooks at the old, lower prices up until midnight September 30. What’s missing from many other reports–and the Overdrive letter–is that Hachette says they “had […]
Briefs: Gallimard Officially Acquires Flammarion; Smashwords Set To Provide Self-Published eBooks to Califa Library Consortium; and More
After months on the block, with a number of bidders dropping out and an asking price that nobody wanted to meet, RCS is officially selling French publisher Flammarion to Gallimard — the front-runner all along — for 251 million Euros, nearly 50 million below that original asking price. Reuters reports that RCS will receive about 230 million from the sale, and will post a consolidated gain of 88 million euros. The deal is expected to close in September. A number of publishers met with the European Commission in Brussels Tuesday to call for the streamlining of taxes on ebook purchases […]
New Pew Internet Report Shows Many Americans Don’t Even Know Libraries Offer eBook Lending
Following up on their April report about the overall ebook market in the US, and just in time for ALA, on Friday Pew Internet released a new survey pertaining solely to ebook usage in libraries, surveying 2,986 Americans ages 16 and older at various points between November 2011 and February 2012, with additional qualitative material drawn from a May 2012 survey of over 6500 respondents. 12 percent of ebook readers surveyed by Pew said they borrowed at least one ebook from the library in the past year, with book borrowers also saying they read an average (the mean number) of […]